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Monday, 28 January 2013

It feels very weird for me writing this post (on a Sunday) but scheduling it for Monday. But it's getting late and I really really dislike posting too late.

This week's challenge over at Adventures In Stamping was to use tape in our mani, as well as stamping of course. As soon as this option was up for the vote I chose it because I instantly thought of a manicure I had seen many months ago on Tumblr. This is the manicure I'm talking about so gorgeous, and I love the original colour combo.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Collection 2000 - Angel Wings

Stamping colour: Konad Princess Polish - Pop Green

Other Colour: Sally Hansen Salon Manicure- Fairy Teal

Striping Tape

Image Plate: Bundle Monster - BM 223

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

Here's a swatch of Collection 2000 - Angel Wings, and the stamping alone.

Friday, 25 January 2013

Hi all, Hope you're having a good Friday! Thank goodness the weekend is here!

Today I have another polish that I was sent to review from 2true for more on the company, and the other polishes I have reviewed click here. This post isn't really a review but a quick stamp/swatch.

For more colour accurate photos of Soft Grey, visit Lucy's Stash Here as I could not for the life of me get it to photograph without the green tone before stamping!

Soft grey is a medium grey creme that sometimes looks green to me, just not as green as my photo. Below is two coats that offered really great coverage, and I had no problems at all maneuvering the brush/formula, which lead me to basically no clean up whatsoever.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour:: 2true Fast Dry - Shade 13 Soft Grey

Stamping Colour: NYC - Techno Foil

Image Plate: Konad - M73

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

This is how the polish looks most of the time, and below is when my camera caught it looking very green.

I really love polishes that give you this kind of look in only two coats, so smooth, and as the name implies it dries really quick too.

Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Hope you're having a good Tuesday. This was going to be a scheduled post but i'm off work today as I'm feeling icky :( So i'm snug in bed watching the snow coming down :]

On a happier note.. I have holographic goodness for you today! First up is the stamping and then I'll show you the swatches. No sun shots i'm afraid, so just lots of blurry photos trying to capture the holo with only a flash!

Base coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Kiko - Light Grape

Holo: Sally Hansen - Purple Diamond

Stamp Colour: BYS - Black Satin

Image Plate: Dashica Big SpD-A

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

Above is one coat of Sally Hansen - Purple Diamond over two coats of Kiko - Light Grape.

Sunday, 20 January 2013

This week's challenge over at Adventures In Stamping was to create a mani with an accent nail. As I'm still working through some polishes that I haven't used yet I picked two Sally Hansen Insta-dri polishes painting my nails with Tealy Fast, using Grape Escape for an accent on my ring finger.

As I've just recently got some new Konad stamping polishes I thought I'd give Psyche Pink a shot. Unfortunately I'm a little disappointed by how bright this actually is, or how dull it is I suppose, as I was hoping for it to pop more. That being said, it is a shimmer stamping polish, and I did stamp over shimmer base colours so there isn't much of a contrast between the finish of them.

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Hopefully it'll be snowing when this is posted so I'll be sporting a face like this: =3 or this ^-^. Cause I love the snow, and it looks great from the floor I work on, all floatyyy and awesome. I could literally sit and watch the snow for hours.

In other news, I got my manager addicted to nails! I did some of my coworkers nails on Christmas eve, and recently Kerry asked for a list of things to buy, and she even bought a Konad starter kit! So you never know, I might even share her pretties with yous!

Today I have for you my mini Christmas present haul, just to show what I got. This is no where as crazy as last years haul, but I guess that's because Scott went crazy last year lol.

Sunday, 13 January 2013

So the challenge for this week over at Adventures In Stamping is to stamp with a light colour over a dark base. I voted all excited for this, as I was expecting my new polishes to arrive (totally ran out of white so I bought 3 new colours as well) but they're lost in the post, so these pink and silver nails will have to do! The pink is darker than the silver so that still counts right?

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: W7 - Unnamed Pink

Stamping Colour: Barry M - Silver Foil

Image Plate: Cheeky CH51

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

As these were the nails I was wearing all week I've not quite had the chance to take a photo of the plate I used, or the polishes like I would normally.

The W7 polish is a really surprising pink because I really love it on myself, which pretty much never happens with pink! It came in a pack I received for Christmas off my Nan/Aunt/Uncle, which had two polishes, a lip gloss and a mascara. This however means it has no name. *frustration*

Hope you're all having a good Sunday. I've had a pretty chilled one, pretty much ignoring most of the stuff I need to do in favour of cups of tea, and TV. Oh well!

Saturday, 12 January 2013

Today I have a review/swatch of a polish I was sent by the company Jacava. To find out more about this company visit their site here all their polishes are DBP, Camphor, Formaldehyde and Toluene free, and they don't test on animals either.

Dry time was really good, as was coverage. I have two thin coats on my index finger, and two thicker coats on the rest. Can you notice how squishy the thicker coats look? These are taken in various lighting, without base coat, and without top coat. Look at that shine!

This is how warm this polish looks most of the time, this picture was taken with the flash on my camera.

Horrible overcast daylight. I think you can see the slight colour difference between the thin and thick coats here.

Shade shot.

From this, and what I've seen of Jacava's other polishes I think most of their creme finishes are going to be more of a Creme-Jelly love child polish, a little bit squishy but with great coverage, and amazing shine.

Over all I'm impressed by polish formula, I really like the bottle and the handle, and the colour really is the perfect chocolate shade, and I know I'm gonna reach for this when I need this kind of warm milky brown.

These polishes retail for £14.50, but there's currently a 3 for 2 offer on.

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

Today I have a mani for you that's a couple of months old, these in theory should've been quite something, but I rushed it so I had some free time to spend with someone who (turns out) didn't deserve it. Should've spent more time on my nails!

Sunday, 6 January 2013

Hi all! Bit of a late one today, but I've been enjoying films and chilling today ^-^

This week's challenge over at Adventures In Stamping is to create a manicure inspired by a book you're currently reading. So as I'm not a massive reader I nabbed the book my mother's currently reading. I'm the kind of girl who will slap on some SPF and lay out on the grass in the summer with shades on and a book to read, with a kittie by my side (usually Cheese) in the shade I'm creating. So while I'm currently hoping for snow, I've already started a list of which books I wanna read this summer :D

So this manicure is inspired by Valley Of Silence by Nora Roberts, I was in a rush to do these, and haven't even read the blurb so I have no idea whether I should recommend or not!

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Rimmel - White

Glitter: Barry M - Pink Sapphire Glitter

Stamping Colour: Miss Sporty - Fatal Plum

Image Plates: Cheeky CH50, Bundle Monster BM05

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanved Hard As Nails

Here's what I used:

I added the glitter as it seemed like there were too many white gaps. Also, notice the fact I have the summer Cheeky plates, I'm so excited, I haven't tried them all yet, but there's so much I want to do, so expect to see a lot a lot of Cheeky stamping soon once I've checked they all work!

Hope you've all had a good weekend, mine has gone far too quickly, and I haven't had a chance to remotely play catch up with my reading list! Always tomorrow though ;]

Saturday, 5 January 2013

At the start of December I was approached with the opportunity to review some nail polishes for a company called 2true. 2true is a UK brand and you can find out more about them and their products here. You can buy their products in any Superdrug store and online.

I was sent 6 polishes to review, and today I have the first three for you. which are all Crystal nail polishes. These dried in a good time, and have an incredible shine to them. The formula is foil, lovely multicoloured sizes of foil flecks, that give the finished look a little hint of duochrome without a wild shift in colour.

First up is Miami (Shade 7)

This is two coats, no top coat. Look how glossy this is in the shade! 2true Crystal nail Polish Shade 7 is a bronze based foil that looks very warm in sunlight, and gives off a lovely cool rose gold flash in the shade.

Next up we have Rio (Shade 9)

Above is two coats, first pic in the sunlight, second in the shade. This is definitely the warmest toned polish of the bunch I got sent to try. Shade 9 is a lovely warm brown bronze, with a gold shift.

Next up is probably my favourite from these three polishes.

This is St.Tropez (Shade 10) a really gorgeous cool grey-brown base with blue, bronze, and gold flecks. This is my favourite out of the bunch because of the mix of colours, I love the fact that from afar you can still see that they're not all similar fleck colours. The polish flashes blue quite a bit when the light hits, and it sometimes looks a purple too. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to get any sun shots of this one.

Shade 7- Miami, Shade 9 - Rio, Shade 10 - St.Tropez

Taken with a flash. And for funsies I swatched them side by side, and with OPI - Warm & Fozzie as a comparison.

L-R: Miami, Rio, St. Tropez, OPI - Warm & Fozzie (in the shade)

In the sunlight

Hope you're all having a good Saturday! I shall be back tomorrow with the first Adventures In Stamping challenge in 2013!

Wednesday, 2 January 2013

I think this is my last Christmas mani, so I'm posting it now so It doesn't get neglected until next christmas!

Base Coat: CND - Stickey
Index: Barry M - Red Glitter

Stamp Colour: Konad White

Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM 20

Green Striping Tape

Middle & Thumb: Barry M - Gold Foil

W7 - Black

Barry M - Yellow Topaz Glitter

Ring Finger: Essence - Kiss On Top Of The Rock

Nails Inc: Electric Lane

Stamp Colour: Konad White

Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM 318

Ohter Colours: Acrylic Paints

Pinky: W7 - Black

Stamp Colour: Barry M - Gold FoilImage Plate: Konad M57

Other: Barry M - Red Glitter

NOPI - Fell From The Tree

Top Coat: Sally Hansen - Advanced Hard As Nails

I really loved wearing these, the index finger was amazingly bling and pretty. However the flash washed the glitter out a bit, and after a day and a half the striping tape decided it was gonna start coming off. Does anyone have any tips for this?